TenTonHammer.com - Taking MMO Gamers to the Next Level!

by Cody “Micajah” Bye

Deep in the state where oil tycoons kick up their cowboy boots and lean back in their plush leather chairs, you’ll find a gaming convention that’s just beginning to strike it rich. The event in question is the Austin Game Developers Conference (formerly known as merely the Austin Games Conference before being acquired by CMP Media); a five day shindig that features lectures, seminars and keynotes from some of the most respected leaders in the video game industry.

The Austin Game Developers Convention Logo

Each and every day, you’ll rub elbows with big name individuals like Richard Garriott or Mike Morhaime, or you might be spending your time in Austin applying for jobs and doing last-minute sort of interviews. In a spectacular venue with terrific accommodations, the Austin Game Developers Conference certainly attracts the sort of individuals that the Ten Ton Hammer staff loves to interview.

This year’s Austin Game Developers Conference is particularly important for Ten Ton Hammer and our readers, as the unofficial “theme” for the 2007 AGDC centers squarely on online worlds and the marketplace behind them. Austin is becoming one of the central hubs for online gaming as Bioware, Sony Online Entertainment, Vigil Studios and Destination Games have all made their home in the area, and it seems only appropriate that the AGDC would revolve its programming around the online space. A vast majority of the seminars in this year’s programming focus on online gaming in form or another, and the entire Ten Ton Hammer staff is interested in what sort of news will be coming out of the conference.

As we always do before an event of this magnitude, it’s time to give you a little sneak peek into what you should be expecting out of this year’s Austin Game Developers Conference.

EVE Online fans should expect a whole mass of coverage from the Ten Ton Hammer staff at AGDC.

With the event season slowly wrapping up, our list of staffers attending this show will be a bit smaller (at three people) than what you’ve seen at the other conferences this year. The exceptionally talented author (*coughs snorts gags*) of this “AGDC Preview” article and Ten Ton Hammer’s managing editor, Cody “Micajah” Bye, will definitely be in attendance with my wrists firmly chained to my laptop’s keyboard and my typing fingers flashing away for your enjoyment. Aside from Mr. Micajah’s attendance, Ten Ton Hammer is sending the very talented, beautiful and intelligent Katie Postma to serve as Cody’s handler and whip-cracker. Keep him chained up for too long and he starts to get squirrelly. Finally, the ever thoughtful and creative Bill Pirkle will be rounding out the team with laptop and camera in hand. I don’t anticipate anymore “body-paint-only” booth babes, but if there are, Bill’s all over them.

Expect a large amount of coverage on the online industry even for the short time amount of time that we’re going to be there. Honestly, I’m booked from 10:00 am till 5:00 pm Wednesday, Thursday and Friday with at least one interview an hour, sometimes two. The press room will become my humble abode and I plan on sticking my not-so-thin ass into one of their nice comfy “press-only” seats. Unfortunately, I’ve never been in a press area that could be deemed “comfy”, so I’ll probably be out of luck. Couple the busy interview schedule with the obligatory social functions at the end of the day, and you’ve got the recipe for some sort of permanent organ failure. Thankfully, my kidneys and liver are in tip-top shape!

Tabula Rasa exclusive will also be coming down the pipe later this week.

Speaking of interviews and demonstrations, we have the whole gamut of developers and games lined up in front of us. As I’m writing this, we have concrete engagements made with CCP|White Wolf, K2 Networks, NetDevil, Acclaim, Cheyenne Mountain Entertainment, 38 Studios, Vivox, NCsoft, Funcom and Icarus Studios. You should definitely expect to see some brand new information out of a few of these studios, if not all of them, but we’ll be keeping a watchful eye on the developers to make sure we’re not missing anything. I’m sure this list will change as it gets closer to conference time, but you can rest assured that the Ten Ton Hammer crew will have an incredibly full load.

And if that’s not enough, all of our community sites will definitely be kept up-to-date will all the latest news and events from around the industry. Our World of Warcraft site will continue to be the best in the industry, while the Vanguard community site and forum can be expected to remain as active as ever. The Lord of the Rings Online community site will definitely be pushing out amazing amounts of content, and our Dungeons and Dragons community remains the source for guides and statistics for that online world. As I said, you can’t get premium content like this anywhere else on the Internet.

All next week, make sure you keep your browsers pointed directly at TenTonHammer.com! We’re always your #1 source for MMOG news, entertainment and guides on the Internet. On top of that, we’re a bunch of fine-looking specimens too.

Ten Ton Hammer taking you to the next level, baby.

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